quack quack quack
by smileyfacebabe
Summary: The semi-long winded tale of Sakura and Sasuke at college. Sakura gains a gaggle of grad student ducklings to take care of while Sasuke accidentally makes friends against his will. Eventual ItaSaku.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I have a problem where I have other stories up and instead I write new ones. Don't look at me, I'm terrible. Anyway this is going to be a few chapters, because I'm jonesing for a fic with Sakura and the Akatsuki and modern au's are my lifeblood. I also really, really wanna explore the Sasuke and Sakura best-friend thing. (Also I've been watching Naruto from the beginning. I cannot wait for Sakura to get to the badass face punching shit.) Also, FYI, eventually going to be ItaSaku, so there's a head's up about that.

Dedication: To Sonya, who suggested I read the great fic with Sakura and the Akatsuki and the dancing and just, ugh, it's so good. I love you, girl, like, so, so much.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

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The plan had been that Sakura would pick Sasuke up at 7:30am and they would head out, hitting the donut place on the way, but when Sasuke opened up the car door at 7:27am he didn't get in immediately. He made a face, one where his nose scrunched up like a rabbit's before he sighed in a long and dramatic way. Sakura couldn't help but roll her eyes at him a little bit.

"What's up, Drama Queen?" Sakura asked. She was fiddling with her phone absentmindedly, trying to find the song she wanted to start the day out on. She only had a few hours of music on there, enough to get them half-way to the university, mostly because she figured that was all Sasuke was going to be able to stand. He had a terribly low tolerance for the pop music she and Naruto indulged, but it was her car and her rules, so he would keep his mouth shut for a little while. Sasuke sighed again before flopping into the passenger seat, legs still dangling out into the drive way.

"My mother wants to say goodbye to you," he said not meeting her eyes. Sakura groaned and repressed the urge to smother him with her bare hands.

"We were supposed to escape before anyone could catch us," she told him. He shot her a Look, one that clearly said _What did you expect, I am a sad sissy momma's boy who couldn't leave for college without one last kiss on the forehead, okay, now go and say goodbye to my mommy before I cry_.

"Stop that," Sasuke grumbled as he slumped further into the seat.

"Not doing anything," Sakura said, though her lips curled into a little grin to let him know that she wasn't completely innocent. Sasuke had a strange sixth sense kind of feeling for when his two best friends were making fun of him in their heads and it never stopped being the weirdest and most hilarious thing ever. She put the car in park and unlocked her seatbelt, kicking open her door with her foot as she elbowed the handle open.

"Don't touch my stereo," she ordered before sliding out. The fingers that had been quietly creeping toward her scratched up, battered, and case-less phone froze before sullenly retreating to tap in agitation against Sasuke's knee. He grunted at her to let her know that he heard, though it was probably also meant to let her know that he was too cool to give a shit. Since his usual pre-noon charm was combined with a particularly sullen scowl Sakura left him alone, shutting the door quietly and making her way back toward the front door of the Uchiha's ridiculously huge house. She slipped inside warily , despite the fact that she knew the only person inside was Mikoto, Sasuke's mother.

"Sakura," Mikoto called, her voice coming from the kitchen. Sakura sighed a little, guilt creeping up on her bit by bit. A big goodbye party was planned, set later on that day for their group of friends who were going away from college and now that they had been caught trying to skip it and avoid clinging, desperate hugs and tears that were more than likely to appear amongst the balloons and cupcakes. Sakura and Sasuke both had a strict policy against such public fiascos of emotion and therefore had concocted a plan to leave a day earlier than originally planned. But nobody had ever successfully pulled one over on Mikoto, so deep down Sakura wasn't really surprised to find the woman standing in front of the coffee maker, still in her pajamas but otherwise seemingly more awake than her son.

"Hi," Sakura said sheepishly. It briefly occurred to her to blame the whole thing on Sasuke's sullen attitude, but before she could Mikoto crossed the room in four long strides and engulfed her in a tight, secure embrace. Sakura tensed before relaxing, guilt surfacing even more. She wrapped her arms around Mikoto carefully, feeling small and foolish and childish in the loving embrace. The dark haired woman smelled like coffee beans and apples and the fabric of her pajama top was soft against the eighteen year old's cheek.

"Sasuke really, really didn't want to go to the party today, huh," Mikoto mused quietly. One of her hands reached up, running down Sakura's back in a comforting gesture. Sakura didn't answer, shrinking instead into the arms of the woman who had bandaged most of her wounds over the years of chasing after Naruto and Sasuke on the playground.

"Oh well," the woman continued, drawing back a set, her hands still on Sakura's shoulders. "You're adults now, I guess, so there's nothing I can do to stop you." She smiled like her words weren't a complete lie; if Uchiha Mikoto had wanted them to stay for the party there wouldn't have been a single damn thing in the world they could have done otherwise. But then her hands cupped Sakura's cheeks, fingers brushing her hair away from her eyes as the woman tipped her chin side to side like she was studying her face.

"Take care of yourself and Sasuke," the dark haired woman ordered sternly. She was using her Mom Voice and Sakura shrunk a little bit inside her own bones. "And call me if something happens. I don't care if you two are worried I'll be mad, promise me you will _call me immediately _if something goes wrong."

"Promise," Sakura murmured. Mikoto nodded, releasing her carefully and stepping back. The older woman glanced to the side, eyes going to the clock for a moment before she bit her lip, an uncharacteristic gesture.

"I have another favor to ask," Sasuke's mother said, turning back. Sakura motioned for her to go ahead and say what she wanted to, already internally set to agree. Mikoto smiled, head tipping to the side.

"Would you mind checking in on Itachi while you're there too? He's moved into a house in a neighbor just outside the campus and I'm worried about him."

Sakura smiled again, this time a little widened and more genuine. "I doubt Itachi needs my help," she said, recalling the dark haired stoic genius that had helped her with her English homework in middle school. "But of course I'll check in on him. I'll even drag Sasuke along with me when I do it." Mikoto laughed softly as she stepped back, arms folding over her stomach.

"Go on," Mikoto urged after a moment. "Get on the road before your aunt wakes up and finds you gone. I'll handle the party guests and Naruto."

Sakura winced, looking away. "Naruto knows, actually," she murmured, shifting. Mikoto laughed again, but a little less happily.

"You three trouble makers," she said fondly. She waved her hand in a shooing motion before turning back to the coffee maker. Sakura bit her lip, but she knew if Mikoto followed her out Sasuke would sour even more. No one liked to watch their mother cry and so Sakura backed out, shut the front door quietly behind her, and made her way back to the car. She hopped in the front seat and absentmindedly swatted Sasuke's hand away from her phone, drawing his scowling attention back to her.

"You okay?" he asked quietly after a moment. She gulped and nodded, jaw sticking out a bit as she clenched it. Mikoto's sad expression just behind she had turned away lingered behind her eyes, but Sakura shook it off and knocked her phone over the cup holder and into her best friend's lap.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, just as quietly. She curled her fingers around the gearshift to put the car in reverse, chest rising and falling as she took a deep, steady breath. "Find _Best Day Of My Life_ and put it on."

Sasuke's groans echoed throughout the quiet car until he sullenly located the song on her phone. She was well aware of the way the curtains twitched as she backed out of the driveway and drove down the street. She would have bet money that Sasuke was aware of it too, but no one spoke as they drove to the donut place. Once they had a half of dozen chocolate glazed donuts and two steaming coffees sitting between them, hers black and his so sugary it would make small children cry, she turned the car toward the highway and started their journey to college in earnest.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: This one fought me for a very long time, but here it is. Not completely sure if I like it, but I figured I should post something. Been watching too much Naruto to really write lately. Tell me what you think I guess. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything.

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Sakura honestly meant to go check on Itachi as soon as the next morning rolled around, but she woke up to an hesitant knock on the dorm door and found her roommate standing there, bags around her feet before she could contact him. Sakura had wiped a rough hand down her face, groaned quietly to herself, and then set about trying her best to make friends with the person who she would likely be spending a great deal of time with. The Sunday before classes went by in a blur of boxes and annoyed texts from Sasuke, who apparently had two roommates, one who was loud and the other who was _larger than a fucking house I shit you not Sakura if I go missing ask him to stand up and see if he's squished me _(or so Sasuke sent her after meeting him, but she wasn't sure if she believed him yet). The first week of school followed in much of the same way, as Sakura anxiously went about the process of locating each of the buildings that housed her classes and then navigated through their confusing hallways to find the lecture halls and class rooms. Sasuke wasn't in a single one of her classes, but he did manage to meet her for lunch two days out of the week and every night for dinner.

However first thing Saturday morning Sakura marched up to Sasuke's dorm room door and knocked on it three times. When there was no sign of life on the other side of the door Sakura sighed and knocked again, a little bit louder and more forceful this time. A muffled sounding whining noise came from somewhere on the other side of the door before the echoing sound of feet hitting the floor crept upon her. She waited, hands on her hips, but it wasn't Sasuke who opened the door.

"Uh," said the white haired guy staring at her, mouth open and shirtless. He wasn't entirely bad looking, but he wasn't pretty enough to warrant an instant crush, which was nice. Sasuke never would have let it go if she had a crush on his roommate. "Who're you?"

"Does she have pink hair?" Sasuke's voice croaked from somewhere behind him. Sakura smiled in a way that wasn't very nice at all and shifted to look over the guy's shoulder.

"Sasuke," Sakura said. The white haired guy glanced back into the room behind him, lit only by the light from the hallway. She squinted into the darkness and probably would have thrown her shoe at the person shaped lump in the bottom dorm bunk, but she wasn't entirely sure the lump was Sasuke.

"Please, god, shut the door on her," Sasuke groaned. The lump Sakura was squinting at moved, but it was a guy with orange hair who bravely peeked out at the doorway, not Sakura's dark haired moron. She scowled, standing on her tiptoes in an attempt to see around the still baffled shirtless college freshmen. He glanced at the door still held in his hand for a second, the motion which Sakura saw out of the corner of her eye.

"If you close this door, I will continue to beat on it every morning at 8am until you go crazy," Sakura told the staring boy. He paled, eyes widening in alarm, and she gave him her brightest smile. "But if you let me grab that moron without issue I promise that next time I'll warn you when I plan to kidnap him before noon."

The white haired guy studied her for a second before turning back to face the darkened room. "Dude," he said, "what the actual fuck."

"Sakura," Sasuke whined. He knew that she wasn't bluffing and so, with an air of someone going to their own beheading, he emerged from under his blankets. He had managed to swipe the bed against the far wall apparently, the one separate from the bunk bed that was his roommates'. He too was shirtless, wearing nothing more than a pair of dark colored boxers and a bleary expression. Sakura would have been annoyed, but it was a sight she was unfortunately more than used to.

"You're the definition of Actual Worst, you know that, right?"

Sakura smiled. "You have five minutes before I reenact our 10th grade trip to the beach," she warned him sweetly. He paled even more than his roommate and immediately scrambled out of bed, hoping over to one of the dressers in the room. She turned to his roommates, waving slightly at the orange haired one still under his covers. "Sorry getting him ended up bothering you too, but he didn't answer my texts and Sasuke never has his phone on sound."

The white haired one turned back to her and scratched his head slowly. "Anyone ever tell you you're terrifying," he asked. She shrugged.

"A few times."

"Uh huh," he replied. He seemed to ponder if he should shut the door for a few seconds before shrugging and turning to go back to his bed. His bed was the top bunk it turned out, because after dodging around a frantic Sasuke he grasped the rungs of the bunk bed and slowly climbed up until he could half crawl half flop onto the bed.

"So," he called as Sasuke shoved his feet into his shoes. "Do I wanna ask what happened on your 10th grade trip to the beach?"

"No," Sasuke growled. He shot her a look as she opened her mouth and with a smirk she shut it with an audible click. His roommate made a bemused sounding humming noise in the back of his throat before slumping sideways and wriggling his way back under his covers. Sasuke meanwhile snatched his wallet up from his desk, shoved it in his back pocket, swiped up his phone and his keys, and then stomped his way toward her.

"Bye roomie," the white haired one called out from his burrito of blankets. "Bye scary pink haired girl," he added, seconds before Sasuke wrenched the door shut hard enough to make it rattle.

"He didn't seem very large to me," she mused quietly as Sasuke jammed his key in the lock and jerked it to the side. He gave her the stink eye over his shoulder before turning and shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Suigetsu's the loud one," he said shortly. "Juugo's the large one." He marched down the hallway despite the fact that he wasn't aware of their destination and Sakura skipped ahead to catch up with them, linking her arm through the crook of his elbow so that she could lead him around subtly. She had found out early on that if one of her boys was surly enough it was easier to take them by the arm and steer them carefully while still giving them the feeling of being in charge of their pace. With Naruto she usually slipped her fingers between his, squeezing them every so often to remind him she was there, but Sasuke preferred to walk with his hands in her pockets, so she tucked the crooked of her elbow against his and carefully bumped him toward the stairway nearest to the parking lot where her tiny little hatchback sat waiting.

"Still," she said as they made their way down stairs, still linked together. "They seemed nice enough." Sasuke only grunted and with a small sigh Sakura dropped the conversation, letting him stew in his sleepy grumpiness. He got in the car willingly enough and didn't think to question where they were going until they had left the campus roads.

"What's that," he asked flatly. His hand reached out, but she yanked the directions to Itachi's house back toward her sharply, shooting him a look as flat as his tone.

"Directions," she said. "Now hush, I'm trying to find 5th Street."

"Directions to where?"

Sakura sighed. She glanced again at the instructions Mikoto had emailed her before dropping the piece of paper in her lap and putting both hands on the wheel. Sasuke snatched up the piece of slightly crumpled up piece of paper she had scrawled the directions on earlier that morning, scowling at it fiercely before looking back to her for an answer. She pursed her lips, feeling like she must look like her aunt always did when dealing with Naruto.

"I told you we were going to visit Itachi at some point," she said. Sasuke immediately reached for the door handle, only to pull up short when she locked it and grabbed him by the arm. He looked at her aghast, as if it was insane of her to keep him from throwing himself out of a moving car.

"No," the ridiculous drama queen said. "I am not having breakfast with the devil."

"I promised your mother we would all have breakfast," she told him pointedly. "Do you want to explain to your mother why you threw yourself out a car instead?"

She hadn't actually promised they'd have breakfast. She promised to check in on Itachi and had given the woman an offhand remark about dragging Sasuke along. But what Sasuke didn't know wouldn't hurt him and one early morning weekend breakfast with his older brother wouldn't kill him.

"He dyed my skin green, Sakura," Sasuke said forcefully. "Green. I am not having breakfast with him."

Sakura crinkled her nose up and fought back the urge to pull the car over to the side of the road and beat Sasuke senseless. She spotted 5th Street and pulled into the left turning lane, flicking on her turning signal absently. "That was like ten years ago," she said, "and that was mostly Shisui's fault. Stop being such a big baby about it."

"It was seven years ago and Itachi's idea originally," he replied instantly as he slumped further down into the passenger seat, arms crossing over his chest. It was the position he always took when he was resigned to his fate, but Sakura withheld the urge to cheer until he bit out a quiet, "He sits in the backseat."

"Shot-gun goes to my favorite," she promised cheerfully. Sasuke tried to act as if that statement didn't make him feel better, but she was a pro at reading his facial expressions. She saw the way he gave the barest hint of a smirk for a second and resisted the urge to smirk as well. His posture became the barest bit straighter too and after a moment he picked up the directions again, eyes scanning it more closely.

"You've got a right turn coming up soon," he warned her. And so they made their way to the house Itachi was renting. She glanced at Sasuke as she pulled into the driveway behind an old silver minivan, but he shook his head at her, arms crossing once more over his chest.

"Not going in," he declared. She rolled her eyes but didn't argue, unbuckling her seatbelt after she put the car in park. She reached to pull out the keys, but Sasuke stopped her, fingers brushing the back of her hand. His other hand was searching in between the seats for the audio cord that hooked their phones up to the stereo and though the thought of listening to Sasuke's music early in the morning pained her she got out of the car without further fuss. She took in the house in front of her as she made her way up to the front door, but it was a strangely unremarkable house with while walls, a dark roof, and a dark blue door. She knocked on the door three solid times, just as she had with Sasuke's dorm door, but unlike his dorm door there was the sound of someone moving behind it almost immediately. A few seconds later it swung inward and a guy who definitely wasn't Itachi was left staring at her blankly.

"Um," the guy said. He had red hair and a pair of deep set eyes with bags of purple bruising the skin underneath them. "Hello."

Sakura blinked at him, leaning back a little because the guy looked a bit like he was about to collapse on her. He stared at her for a full thirty seconds, his shoulders slumped as he leaned against the door frame before abruptly speaking.

"I've forgotten how cereal works," he said blankly. It was the only thing he said, though silence hung for much longer as Sakura tried to figure out if the man in front of her was stoned or just extremely tired. For some reason she was leaning toward exhaustion instead of drugs, mostly because she didn't anyone would be up at 8am on a Saturday to do drugs. Finally Sakura cleared her throat, casting a quick glance back toward the car to see if Sasuke was at all concerned by the stranger answering the door. But he was slouched back and she could hear the faint sounds of heavy duty rock coming from her car even twenty feet away, so with a sigh she turned back to the stranger.

"Hi," she said. "I'm here to see Itachi Uchiha?"

"He's asleep I think," the guy said. "I could go get him if you needed me too, I guess."

"That would be great, thanks." She paused, not sure if he wanted her to stay on the front porch or what, but he lurched off the door frame, leaving the door wide open as he turned. She followed him hesitantly, fingers shoved in the back of her short pockets, as the man in wrinkled jeans and a paint-splattered white t-shirt started to lumber off. Sakura could see the kitchen across the way from the living room and her heart clenched as she thought of his face, solemn and confused, like some kind of puppy. Sakura bit her lip and tried to gather her resolve, but when the red headed guy stumbled back into the living room to tell her he had woken up Itachi for her she crumpled.

"Would you like some help with your cereal problem?"

The red head looked at her as if she was some kind of miraculous answer to a math problem that had been eluding him for ages. He lumbered toward her and planted his hands on her shoulders, smiling at her a little bit lopsidedly.

"Please," he said, gesturing toward the kitchen behind him. She followed him in and he sat on top of the kitchen table, swinging his bare feet like a child while she searched through his cupboards. It should have been weird, but Naruto and Sasuke had always been difficult when woken suddenly, so it was almost familiar in a strange way.

This was how Itachi found her, standing at his kitchen counter with one of his housemate's as she made him a bowl of sugar marshmallow-filled cereal. She didn't notice him at first, watching the red head carefully as she poured milk into the bowl, waiting for him to tell her when to stop. But when she did turn, one hand screwing the cap on the milk container so that she could put it back into the fridge, she found the older brother of her best friend standing in his pajama pants in the kitchen doorway.

He didn't really have to ask, she figured, but he did anyway. He quirked an eyebrow at her, mouth tilted up into something that wasn't quite a smile, and croaked out a quiet, "My mother, right?"

Sakura smiled back, cheerful and not as apologetic as she probably should have been. "Sasuke called shotgun, sorry."


End file.
